Texas high school football coach who inspired ‘Friday Night Lights’ dead at 73

Gary Gaines, who coached the west Texas high school football team portrayed in “Friday Night Lights,” died Monday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.

He was 73.

“Thank you for remembering our family in your thoughts and prayers,” his family said in a statement.

Gaines, who spent more than 30 years coaching in the Lone Star State, made a mark during his four-year tenure at Odessa Permian, where he led the school to its fifth of six state championships with a perfect season in 1989.

Odessa Permian head coach Gary Gaines walks off the practice field after a high school football workout in May 2009. (Kevin Buehler/)

But it was the 1988 season that inspired Buzz Bissinger’s bestselling book, “Friday Night Lights,” which chronicled the highs and lows of high school football in a town where winning was all that mattered.

The book was then turned into a movie, starring Billy Bob Thornton as Gaines, and inspired the Emmy-winning NBC series starring Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, alongside Scott Porter, Zach Gilford, Jesse Plemons, Taylor Kitsch, Gaius Charles and Michael B. Jordan.

Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), Chris Comer (Lee Thompson Young) and Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) on the sidelines in "Friday Night Lights." (Ralph Nelson/)

Gaines famously said he never read the book.

“I just can’t find the words to pay respects,” Gaines’ former assistant coach, Ron King, told the Odessa American. “It’s a big loss for the coaching profession. There are a lot of coaches he took under his wing and mentored.”